Simone
nixCraft 🐧Swedish government announced that the country’s schools would be going back to basics, emphasizing skills such as reading and writing, particularly in early grades. After mostly being sidelined, physical books are now being reintroduced into classrooms, and students are learning to write the old-fashioned way: by hand, with a pencil or pen, on sheets of paper. The Swedish government also plans to make schools cellphone-free throughout the country https://undark.org/2026/04/01/sweden-schools-books/
In the age of stupid LLMs and social media like TikTok or Insta this move is very important to teach kids fundamentals that can last longer than any tech bro's bullshit apps ever will. Well done, Swedish government.
RasterInterrupt@nixCraft Yeah, social media is a failed experiment. Time to move on. The nordic countries are way ahead of the curve. As usual 👍
Cassandrich@rasterinterrupt @nixCraft As he posts on social media to say... 🙄
Edit: Ok, I shoud revise that. Even though it usually isn't, "social media" should really be thought of as a separate, bad thing versus "social networking", which is what we have here. The switch in term was very deliberate by the industry that wanted to frame it as something of value to publishers/advertisers rather than something of value to its participants.
Klaus Frank@nixCraft I feel like this is an over correction. The way to go is kinda in the middle - I think.
Louis SalkeldWell I wouldn't be able to type with 10 fingers if it wasn't for school forcing us to learn it. And in hindsight I'm kinda thankful for that.
And I'm sure a lot of people in class benefitted from all of these "search stuff on the internet for your presentation" with being guided to source validate and double check stuff to teach critical thinking and media competency.
Also we did 3d CAD design and entry level programming in school too, so...
Krupo
:cool_s:ylvie 
@agowa338 @salkeld @nixCraft There is perhaps some nuance that is being lost. Nowhere does it suggest the modern equivalent of Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing or computer labs with office and engineering software are being removed. It is the ban of cell phones and a move back to writing and reading primarily on physical media, away from laptops and tablets
Zergy 
bewilderbeast23@nixCraft Wonderful. Skilled use of cellphones can then be taught in a class dedicated to doing it, with provided cellphones: Blocking, safety, anti-spam, how to switch off google's invasiveness, block tracking, etc. etc.
DeadTOm 
@nixCraft I've been watching this happen online for a decade now. I know it isn't the student's faults. It's not even the fault of the education system.
Walls of text with no capitalization, no punctuation, no delineation between sentences or paragraphs. You have to read it four times to understand it.
Here in the US, our government has been deliberately undercutting our education system since the 1980s, it's no wonder our literacy rate is tanking.
lxskllrSubjectively, I feel like I learn better with books, and writing stuff down with a pencil. I'm old, so it could be bias, but tech is distracting to me in all the wrong ways. I'm very comfortable with it. It just feels like an abstraction layer that gets in the way of learning.
Black Chic with the Red Truck
Kierkethumbs up convincingly@nixCraft meanwhile the liberal party’s fixation with schools has completely shattered the learning by introducing neoliberal for profit privately run schools. They are still in power and behind this attempt at distracting from their core failure
Smurfs
Tero Hänninen@nixCraft very positive changes. Kids deserve their freedom from cellphone parenting and they also deserve to be taught basic skills like writing. After offering several generations of kids to the altar of digitalisation without actually teaching any relevant tech skills (usage of US tech giant cloud platforms is not really a relevant skill), maybe we finally can start to think about future with clearer heads.
ĞÖKÜ👻👻™
OhSnap!DragonThat's a plan with teeth.
Meanwhile, the U.S. slips back into functional illiteracy.
Carl Setzer@nixCraft my main concern is simply how quickly analog materials become dated. I don't think that's a problem, per se. Rather, something to be managed around.
pixie@carlsetzer We solved this problem ages ago, with new and revised editions.
Paper can be recycled easily and even if thrown out, it decomposes way quicker then anything found in any electronic device...
Muiris@nixCraft I actually worked in an EdTech startup 10 years ago. Even my company recommended using screens for learning for a maximum time of just 20 mins per day, just 2 days per week. Their ethos was that it was the teacher’s job to teach, in the old fashioned way on a board, that screens should never replace that. EdTech should only be used to as tool to help teachers and students, not a way for education systems to cut costs and reduce the role of teachers.
EvoScale@nixCraft Ahh the convergence of when too much is too much, and too little, too little.
What is a sustainable range, and can it be taught in early stages of development in order produce sustainable adults?
Draco@nixCraft I think taking away the emergency communication devices from all schoolchildren is probably bad, actually.
@DL_Draco_Rex
only if you are in the US.
Adults will remain in possession of their communication devices.
@nixCraft
only if you are in the US.
Adults will remain in possession of their communication devices.
@nixCraft
@pixie @DL_Draco_Rex @nixCraft Mass shootings aren't the only reason children need to have access to a communication device and recording device. There is also bullying (by other kids and by adults) and the adults cannot be trusted to handle that responsibly.
LisPi@dalias @pixie @DL_Draco_Rex @nixCraft It sure would've done wonders for me.
At that time though any such devices were the domain of idle rich.
At that time though any such devices were the domain of idle rich.
@lispi314 @DL_Draco_Rex @nixCraft @pixie When I was a kid in school, having a real computer with networking in my pocket was literally my dream. I carried a series of Casio and HP programmable graphing calculators as the closest thing.
I am absolutely sure that there are kids just like that now, and it hurts me viscerally when well-meaning people want to take that away from them just because capitalists behave like shit, rather than wanting to smash capitalism.
@dalias @DL_Draco_Rex By experience, I would say that it solves less problems than it creates.
Where I'm from, cellphone use is banned in schools since last year (apart from specific pedagogical uses, accessibility or health needs) and the difference it made was huge - kids are back at running around and playing together at recess, communication is better between everybody, focus improvement and several adolescents even thanked the ban, in our student assembly, because they felt it helped them with their addiction to the phone. Also, now we have more authority to deal with ciberbullying, which has been a huge problem for us - bigger then physical (or analog) bullying.
(They still use computers, and in our school we are considering to reduce the use, but not banning.)
Where I'm from, cellphone use is banned in schools since last year (apart from specific pedagogical uses, accessibility or health needs) and the difference it made was huge - kids are back at running around and playing together at recess, communication is better between everybody, focus improvement and several adolescents even thanked the ban, in our student assembly, because they felt it helped them with their addiction to the phone. Also, now we have more authority to deal with ciberbullying, which has been a huge problem for us - bigger then physical (or analog) bullying.
(They still use computers, and in our school we are considering to reduce the use, but not banning.)
@pixie @DL_Draco_Rex There's a big difference in having them out playing with them when it's interfering with learning and having them on their persons in case they deem something important enough to accept the consequences of breaking a rule. The latter should never be banned.
Regarding socializing/playing together, this is simply not something that's going to happen for some kids, especially when their in-person peers are a homogenous bunch with nothing but normie neurotypical interests. Taking away the potential for connection and friendship from them is cruel.
@dalias @DL_Draco_Rex I feel there's some projecting happening here.
Also some misunderstanding of how things might or might not be implemented.
Here, kids may have their phones, but in their lockers or backpack or turned off.
The phones WHERE being previously being used to film colleagues and teachers, without their consent, guided by extreme conservative parents, to generate "proof" of indroctination and so on.
When public policy is made, in serious places (I am deliberately excluding the US in this matter), we take into account data, studies (or the lack of it), and consider the bigger picture, instead of specific personal issues. I work and study technology and education for over a decade. When policies like this ban are made, they calculate the pros and cons.
@dalias @DL_Draco_Rex *bullies where also using phones to record and expose LGBTQIA+ kids and girls on social networks.
@pixie @DL_Draco_Rex Yeah, okay, that's entirely reasonable. What's not reasonable is confiscating phones when they enter the building or something like that.
Like, you shouldn't just be able to record people without their consent normally, without facing consequences for it. But you absolutely should be physically capable of doing it, in case there's a real need to document something horrible happening, as long as you're willing to accept the consequences of breaking that rule.
@pixie @DL_Draco_Rex I just wouldn't call the policy you're talking about a "ban". It's more like a usage policy.
Matti J.
jzilversmit88@nixCraft this is actually a good thing and American schools need to follow suit.
Lizzie
Worik> Swedish government announced that the country’s schools would be going back to basics, emphasizing skills such as reading and writing,
A very bad idea.
There has been a lot of work on effective education and "back to basics" is a dog whistle for "throw it all away" and stop the "liberal indoctrination " of children
A shame, but Sweden has always been a bit like that
Matt Godden@nixCraft the only reason technology has a part in the classroom, is because that's what technology companies have to sell. Laptops don't unionise, strike for better pay and conditions, hold school management to account, or advocate for students.
The only variable ever shown to consistently increase academic outcomes, is hiring more teachers, so there are fewer students per teacher.
Open Risk@nixCraft Sweden also wanted to go 100% cashless until the Ukraine invasion, upon which they regained some perspective on the risks of rushing to break physical things.
Digital technologies can obviously be massively empowering, including some forms of "social media", including some forms of algorithmic data science (don't call me "AI") etc.
But its by now pretty darn obvious to anybody caring to look, that abuse, negative sideeffects and emerging risks can easily overwhelm the positives.